


Analyses on Kokichi Ouma

by UnweavingLies (rychuu)



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Character Study, Literary Theory, Meta, Other, literary criticism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25503790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rychuu/pseuds/UnweavingLies
Summary: These are my personal assessments and analyses on the character Kokichi Ouma, from Danganronpa V3. I aim to dissect the text and provide insight into concepts and ideas that revolve around this character.------DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am very aware that these theories and analyses are most likely not canon, or at least not what the writers intended on being canon, nor am I saying that these are 100% canon and should be considered as such. These are just a fan theories/analyses I came up with for my own enjoyment and wanted to share with others, as I like coming up with theories/analysis posts and reworking canons to make enhanced stories and character development in my perspective. I firmly believe that the idea of making theories isn’t supposed to be a shouting contest to see which opinion is the most loud and correct, but should be something to share with others and find acceptance and understanding in different interpretations, even if you don’t agree with them.
Comments: 32
Kudos: 117





	1. Kokichi Ouma Character Mini Analysis: Food Items (And Why He Might Actually Not Be Able to Taste Food)

So something that immediately caught my eye when making this list was the food items Kokichi enjoyed, and how my mind immediately jumped to this bit of dialogue from the Salmon mode dates with Kokichi:

It’s an interesting line of dialogue that pops up, seemingly out of nowhere or coming from a tangent, and immediately Kokichi backpedals into the idea that this is a lie.

However… he never outright _says_ it’s a lie at all, actually. We _assume_ it’s a lie because he follows it up with “I like sweets and spicy food!” but both of those kinds of foods might have another element that makes them enjoyable without him being able to taste them.

After doing a lot of research, a _lot_ of taste-related disorders are actually smell-related disorders, and finding birth defects where _just_ the sense of taste is affected is… strangely difficult. So the most likely candidate is that Kokichi was born with very very dull taste buds, no taste buds at all, or has a hard wire problem where he _has_ taste buds, but his brain doesn’t receive input from them. Either way, it’s still possible that he was born with this inability to taste food.

It is important to note that Kokichi never implies his sense of smell is compromised, and has made remarks on scents before, so it’s best to assume that his sense of smell is fine.

However, as per research goes, a lot of people who have this (or a similar) issue with the inability to taste food is through textures and temperature.

Spicy foods are a prime candidate to make food enjoyable without being able to taste anything, because the heat you feel from spicy food has nothing to do with your taste buds. The sensation is caused by a chemical compound called capsaicin, which is an irritant for mammals. It’s actually designed to deter animals from eating the plants that produce them, but we humans sure are _adventurous_ and eat it anyway. Regardless–because of the fact that capsaicin is causing a chemical reaction to create the sensation of “spicy” rather than it being directly related to the taste buds, Kokichi can _definitely_ feel the heat.

Sweets is a bit more difficult to determine _exactly_ why he would enjoy them as someone who can’t taste food–but it is possible he could simply enjoy the textures of various sweets. Chewy caramel, smooth hard candy, melting chocolate–sweets have a _lot_ of potential textures that he probably finds enjoyable.

I’m pretty convinced after looking at the food items he enjoys that he’s not lying here–that he can’t taste food, and the food he likes mirrors his words.

The Boba tea has chewy tapioca pearls. The Non-Alcoholic Drink of Immortality does not taste good according to the item description but says it will make the drinker immortal. Bubble Gum Bomb makes explosive sounds when blown and popped. Rock Hard Ice Cream and the Fully-Automated Shaved Ice Machine both include cold elements. Sukiyaki Caramel (Caramels have fun textures as they are) is apparently made with really strong, clashing flavors hat don’t mix well. Gyoza In the Shape of a Face has a thick skin and is tough. And finally, the Astro Cake is freeze dried, meaning it’s not your typical cake–it’s crunchy and hard.

In conclusion, I actually do genuinely believe that Kokichi can’t taste food, which is why most of his liked food items feature a temperature or texture element. The only one that stands out is the Immortality drink, but if you couldn’t taste how bad it was anyway, who _wouldn’t_ love getting a drink that might or might not give you immortality?

Kokichi’s favorite drink–anything carbonated–also makes sense if you think about it. While the fandom likes to joke around and say his favorite drink of all time is grape soda, his profile specifically states he likes _carbonated drinks._ Nothing specific. He would probably enjoy the bubbles and carbonation if he was unable to taste the drink normally.

Anyway, that concludes this mini analysis. Take it as you please, but I’m pretty convinced Kokichi actually can’t taste food.


	2. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: His “Harmonious Heart” Event and What it Could Mean

For this analysis/theory, I want to talk about Kokichi’s “Harmonious Heart” Event, and what the different routes could mean for his character.

From my understanding, the Harmonious Heart event is supposed to be an event where Shuichi sees into his classmate’s inner thoughts and feelings. While Kokichi can manipulate his body and put on a facade with all of his lying, it’s _impossible_ for him to control how he feels and what he’s thinking internally. So with that out of the way, every thought we see in the Harmonious Heart event is a genuine thought.

The first half of the event itself is dedicated to expressing the idea that Kokichi does and probably has considered before that _he should stop lying so much to get closer to others._ He even goes so far as to think that he should _stop lying altogether_ for Shuichi.

It’s an interesting turn to his character–since he puts up a front that he _loves lying_ and finds it fun, but here he’s considering abandoning it altogether. Considering that Kokichi finds lying to be his “Shtick” and his “way of life,” it’s no wonder why he’s so conflicted. He’s a compulsive liar–of course the idea is going to distress him and conflict with the idea of getting closer to others, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Kokichi has had this internal conflict several times before.

But of course, Kokichi second guesses the idea, and instead of _him_ changing his _entire lifestyle_ for Shuichi, he gets Shuichi to change his views on lying. 

So let’s get on to his reactions to affirming or denying his statements.

This is the route that happens when you deny the idea that Shuichi can learn to love lying, and is by far the worst route of the four.

Kokichi seems to value lies and lying, or at the very least, is so uncomfortable with _not_ lying that he is unwilling to change, even if it means getting closer to someone. So when Shuichi challenges this idea, it not only challenges any potential anxiety or unforeseen factors that keeps Kokichi set in his ways, but Shuichi is _bluntly telling Kokichi that he is not willing to change for him either._ Not even as little as tolerating a flaw Kokichi has.

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object–they clash, and unless one of them lightens up on their ideals, they’ll never be able to get along. Considering Kokichi was _just_ thinking about how he might want to _stop lying altogether_ for Shuichi, this probably stings a lot for Kokichi, and why this route is the worst.

For all Kokichi knows, Shuichi didn’t even _consider_ learning to love lying or at least accept it, meaning that Shuichi doesn’t hold him in any high regard–unlike Kokichi, who holds Shuichi in such a high regard that he, though briefly, considers giving up something he considers his way of life just to get along more with him, despite his discomfort for the idea.

 _Owch._ No wonder why this is the worst route. Shuichi is basically telling Kokichi that he will never accept him for who his is or his flaws. Let’s look at the next one, when you affirm the idea that Kokichi be more honest with Shuichi.

The second-to-worst route reinforces the idea that Kokichi values an unchanging self, or at least, that people shouldn’t change themselves for _just_ anyone. He even looks down upon the idea of believing that someone is worth changing for.

Considering Kokichi sees that lying is his very way of life, Shuichi is enforcing the idea that he change his entire self just do get along with him, which also implies that Shuichi isn’t willing to change even a small aspect of himself to get along with Kokichi. If Shuichi is telling Kokichi to be more honest, then he is _also_ telling Kokichi that means he’s not willing to tolerate the lying much at all. This route is only _slightly_ better in regards to the last route, because Shuichi at least didn’t outright _say_ he would never love or tolerate lying, so Kokichi feels less of a burn and is more annoyed, but he’s hopeful that Shuichi will be able to accept him as a liar once he gets his head out of his ass (at least, in his opinion.)

To the next route! This is the route that you get when you have Shuichi deny the idea of Kokichi changing himself altogether to become more honest.

This is the second-best route you could get, and for a good reason if my analysis is holding up to the challenge. Unlike the last two routes where Shuichi was telling Kokichi to change his entire self, Shuichi is denying that idea. He’s already accepted that Kokichi is a liar, and he always will be. This makes Kokichi happy to hear, because while Shuichi may not ever _love_ it, at least he accepts that fact and isn’t bluntly asking Kokichi to change himself just so they can be friends.

He’s accepting his flaws instead of demanding a change to eradicate them.

Finally, the last route–where you affirm the idea that Shuichi can learn to love (well.. tolerate) lying.

What’s really interesting to me is that at first, this route implies that it’s a bad one with Kokichi showing off his _“I’m really not okay here”_ sprite. This sprite, which the fanbase seems to agree represents Kokichi in true distress, seems out of place in the _best_ route of the Harmonious Heart Event.

I think that at first, Kokichi _was_ distressed. Shuichi said that he could never _love_ lying, but he could learn to _tolerate_ it. While the source of Kokichi’s distress is unclear, it could be one (or a mixture) of a few things:

1\. Kokichi actually does resent his own compulsive lying, and _wants_ to be given a reason to change and/or doesn’t want to be given any more reasons to _not_ change. His lying is compulsive, it’s a _flaw,_ and while he doesn’t want to change _for_ someone, he does want less reasons to stay the way he is now. Sadly, this can’t be proven or denied as Shuichi never gives Kokichi the option to choose for himself here. If there was a bit of dialogue where Shuichi says “If you want to be more honest with me, then that’s your choice.” which translates to “If you want to change yourself, then do it for yourself and not for my sake” for Kokichi, then we’d have a definite on this idea. However, if this is the case, Kokichi bounces back upon realizing that Shuichi will accept him, lies or not, and in the end, it’ll be his choice to decide if he wants to change, and Shuichi is there for him whether or not he does. This, being given the choice to change (or not) of his own accord and not for another, is what makes Kokichi so happy with Shuichi in this route.

2\. Kokichi feels _guilt_ for asking Shuichi to change for him, even if it’s just to accept his flaw as a liar. If Kokichi holds the idea that no one should change for anyone but themselves in a high regard as he implied, then him asking Shuichi to change at all just to tolerate something that he _really probably shouldn’t do in the first place,_ then he feels a bit like a hypocrite. So he puts up a facade of annoyance after his distress, and when Shuichi calls him out on the lie, he comes to realize that Shuichi is accepting his flaw of his own accord, and thus is extremely happy about it.

3\. Kokichi feels rejected–not because Shuichi actually rejected him, but because he doesn’t initially believe Shuichi when he says he’d accept him as a liar. After all, Shuichi has proven to dislike lying and grabs the truth no matter the scenario, so it’s reasonable for Kokichi to believe that Shuichi is lying just to avoid hurting his feelings or for whatever reason. However, then Shuichi calls him out on his lie, and Kokichi realizes that his feelings in regards to tolerating his flaws is genuine, and he becomes ecstatic that Shuichi is willing to tolerate lies just for his sake.

4\. The sprite is misleading, in that it represents Kokichi’s honest feelings at all times. Considering Kokichi is a liar, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to say he was faking his distress in an attempt to see if Shuichi really meant what he said or not. Kokichi is happy to see that Shuichi really _is_ starting to accept his lies and learning how to work around them to get along better with him, which makes him happy.

Regardless of which interpretation is more right or not, Shuichi not only tells Kokichi that he doesn’t want Kokichi to change for him, but is affirming the idea that he can accept his flaws, and that’s what makes this route the most favorable.

So in conclusion; it appears that Kokichi has a high regard for the idea of an unchanging self, or at least, dislikes the notion of someone changing for someone else. He doesn’t want to change his whole self for someone, and values the idea of accepting others for who they are, flaws and all. I find that this mindset is really fitting for his character, actually, as he is a true Ultimate (Supreme) Leader in that he has learned to work around multiple personalities and flaws of several other people in order to be scouted as an Ultimate. 

Unlike Kaede, who represented the flawed interpretation of what a leader should be (I.E. Focused on the end goal over the state of being of those she leads) Kokichi is always thinking of the others around him. You have to be prepared to work with the physical, mental, and emotional flaws of everyone in the group and come up with a strategy to minimize the individual flaws of the group’s members and enhance their strength as a group at the same time to push forward.

With this in mind, Kokichi would most likely learn that pushing to change a flaw is harder than working around it, and thus adopted the idea of accepting the flaws in others as a part of who they are. This is why he has such a negative reaction to the idea of Shuichi trying to force him to change, if that is the case, and why he seems to have such a high regard for the idea of an unchanging self.

Anyway, I better stop here before I get too into Kokichi’s amazing leadership skills and talent (I’ll save that analysis for a rainy day) so I hope you enjoyed this analysis!


	3. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: His Love Suite Event and What it Means to Be Kokichi’s “Ideal?”

Hello, and welcome back. Today, lets talk about Kokichi’s Love Suite Event, and what it could mean for his character, feelings and views on aspects of love.

Quick note: This one was actually really hard for me to analyze. I’m trying to keep things coherent but I’ve ended up erasing and rewriting certain parts several times. Who knew that such a short scene would cause me so many problems! 

The main issue is, and I’m going to say it now–the Love Suit Events are mostly fanservice, so it makes Kokichi’s all the more so difficult since the fantasies themselves aren’t all that special. So with that in mind, I’m going to discuss more so the _mentalities_ that made Kokichi’s LSE the way it is rather than the actual fantasy itself.

The first thing I want to note is the nature of the Love Suite Events, and how to interpret them within the context of the situation. First, and for most, it is important to remember this:

The Love Suite Events are, always without question, _representatives of an ideal fantasy._ Meaning that Shuichi plays the role of the other person’s “ideal,” which isn’t necessarily implying a typical romance. This is especially so here–Kokichi’s ideal isn’t a lover or typical romantic partner, but a sort of rival or enemy. Shuichi plays the role of the detective, and Kokichi is the phantom thief. Though, there might be more to their “fantasy” relationship, as I’ll explain later.

For now, let’s keep one thing clear: this is Kokichi’s _fantasy,_ and Shuichi is playing the role of his _ideal._ This is important to remember for all LSEs, and Kokichi’s is no exception.

The introduction of the fantasy isn’t anything too special. It sets up the setting and characters for the scene and it’s very short and sweet. It tells us, and Shuichi, that Shuichi is still a detective and Kokichi is a thief. 

Though one thing to note, is that Kokichi might be drawing in their roles from “real life,” as Shuichi is the Ultimate Detective, and Kokichi has lock picking skills that may or may not imply that he is, indeed, some kind of thief. 

The fantasy of Kokichi being a phantom thief is a bit more cartoony–as one might expect with Kokichi–but there are some strange things that are pretty unique to Kokichi’s LSE, that at first, might be easily chalked up to “SaiOuma fanservice” but I do think that it relates to Kokichi’s character… and it has everything to do with Shuichi’s role in the fantasy as “himself.”

For those unaware, there are several implications (and let’s be real it’s down right stated as canon) that Shuichi is playing the role of _himself_ in Kokichi’s fantasy, unlike the others where his role is different or ambiguous. The initial implication is, of course, that Shuichi himself is Kokichi’s ideal… but is that really the case, or is there more to this fantasy’s foundation–Kokichi’s mentality–that might suggest something else?

Let’s analyze the clues given to us about Shuichi being himself in this fantasy.

So the first clue to Shuichi being his “true Ideal,” or so we think, and one of the most obvious ones, is Kokichi has Shuichi play the role of a detective. 

In no other Love Suite Event does it make it so _explicitly clear_ that Shuichi is still a detective. Normally his role is either reformed to fit the ideal of the other person (I.E. Kaito seeing Shuichi as a rival pilot, Maki seeing Shuichi as a friend from the Orphanage, Miu seeing him as her childhood best friend…) or otherwise neutral or ambiguous. 

The second implication that Shuichi is Kokichi’s “true ideal” as he is, are the moments where Shuichi bluntly slips “out of character.”

Throughout the scene Shuichi “breaks character” and _argues_ with Kokichi, though despite this, Kokichi remains happy and continues to be having fun. One of Kokichi’s favorite things to do to Shuichi is make him react, make him overwhelmed and overall mess with him. Even though Shuichi is reacting to Kokichi’s outrageous nonsense the same as he would outside the event, Kokichi is reacting the same as well, as if nothing’s gone wrong.

Meaning Kokichi’s “ideal” in this fantasy would react in the same fashion Shuichi had when he broke character.

Another dead give away is that Shuichi _himself_ acknowledges that he and Kokichi are playing as themselves in this fantasy.

This is something that is also unique to Kokichi’s LSE, as not even in _Kaede’s_ LSE does he acknowledge it so blatantly. It’s an interesting choice on the writer’s perspective–as if the fact that Shuichi and Kokichi are acting as themselves is important here. Which is why I wanted to talk about this first.

Why is it made so blunt and irrefutable that Kokichi and Shuichi are acting as themselves in this fantasy, when no other Love Suite Events do the same? Not even in Kaede’s Event, and Kaede's event is far more fan-service than Kokichi's.

It’s because the dynamic of Kokichi’s relationship with Shuichi is important to the fantasy’s structure. Shuichi isn’t _just_ playing as an ideal–he’s playing Kokichi’s ideal version of him. What Kokichi sees in him and what he likes about him. 

Though, considering how Shuichi fumbles about in the fantasy, I think it’s safe to say that Kokichi’s “ideal” of Shuichi is for Shuichi to be himself. This sort of ties in with the idea that Kokichi values the idea of people being themselves and not change for others, as implied in my analysis of his HHE. It might also be why Kokichi is a phantom thief here, because his partner (Shuichi) is the most in his element when he’s picking apart mysteries and being a detective.

So there might be a whole other twist to this fantasy–Kokichi isn’t actually _so_ _infatuated_ with Shuichi that Shuichi is his romantic ideal. As I’ve mentioned before in my other analysis (The previous chapter about his HH event), Kokichi appears to value an unchanging self and values people for being true to who they are–and whomever plays the role as his “ideal” must uphold to those values.

His ideal is someone who _remains unchanging._ Someone who is themselves as he is himself.

Kokichi’s fantasy may be built off of this mentality, and with how the Event plays out, it does support this concept. Shuichi and Kokichi banter just as if they would outside of the fantasy, the only difference being Shuichi’s perspective and their relationship as strangers–but really, were they even that close outside of the fantasy to begin with?

It is very likely that Kokichi and Shuichi playing as the role of strangers represents Kokichi’s own mentality in relation to their relationship–they’re strangers that barely know anything more than each other’s names. Yet, Kokichi is fascinated with this _stranger,_ and wants him to be fascinated with him too. He wants Shuichi to chase after him and figure him out, wants to be on his mind all the time, and wants him to pay attention to him and become excited when playing games with him. 

So in conclusion: The structure of the Love Suite Event relies on Kokichi’s ideals and his values of an unchanging self, and builds his fantasy around his partner’s sense of self rather than force that person to become someone they’re not. While they remain themselves, however, he wants them to be as interested in him as he is in them. He wants them to play games with him, be excited over him, react to his teasing and messing with them. The relationship has to be somewhat mutual, or Kokichi will be disappointed that it isn’t–if he’s going to have any kind of attachment or feelings for someone, they better be mutual.

I may one day come back to this analysis and tweak it, but I do prefer my conclusion that Kokichi's LSE is more so built off of valuing an unchanging self than Shuichi being his most "ideal", and I feel like that wouldn't make much sense considering Kokichi's character and his unwillingness to find vulnerability with just anyone. He barely knows Shuichi in real life--so it doesn't make much sense that Shuichi is, as himself, Kokichi's ideal--and that is my final conclusion.

I hope you enjoyed this installment in my analyses. Take care, everyone.


	4. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: The Grey Morality of Mercy Killing

I want the disclaimer here to be taken extra-seriously as I know for a fact that this topic within itself is one hell of a problem when it comes to Kokichi’s character. This incident and series of events is what makes or breaks Kokichi’s character for a lot of people. People who see Kokichi’s character as nothing but up to no good be warned; this post is not for you.

However, the said can be said for those who think Kokichi can do no wrong. I may call Kokichi a “precious cinnamon roll” but in reality, the scale of his sins during Chapter 4 is impossible to ignore, especially when it’s such a huge deal that it carries over into the rest of the story of the game. There’s a lot of divide over whether or not Kokichi is a pure saint or pure evil, when in actuality, human beings are far more complicated than black or white, good or evil, and that’s sort of the beauty hidden within this case. Morality is crushed to the ground and stomped on until it’s borderline unrecognizable.

So without further adieu, let’s begin the analysis, and talk about Kokichi’s fall from grace and into a despair so miserable that it ripped him apart.

WARNING, THIS ANALYSIS IS VERY LONG. Only stop to read it when you have a good amount of time to do so.

To start, I think it’s important to get into Kokichi’s head and try to imagine the situation he’s in. It’s the best place to start when dealing with a character who’s thinking illogically and in fits of desperation and despair.

And yes, Kokichi is very much not thinking to the best of his abilities in this chapter. I’ll get into that later.

And it all starts with _this_ card key. This card key is what, ultimately, drags Kokichi into despair.

We as the viewers don’t find out what this card key is for until much further into chapter 5, but we do find out exactly what Kokichi uses it for and what he sees that quite literally breaks him.

_This_ is what Kokichi saw. A dead, ruined earth with no breathable air, no life, nothing. Nothing but destruction. And it’s absolutely important to mention that Kokichi sees this after opening the door in the Death Road of Despair. He doesn’t see it through a flashback light. He sees this, _experiences_ this with his own body. In the flesh.

This is important to note because _not even Kokichi_ would have been able to stand in the face of this and say “Yep, this is absolutely 100% fake, somehow.”

It might be hard for us as the viewers to imagine it, but try to imagine yourself in the face of something like this. Of seeing the earth beyond destroyed, humanity long dead. Imagine choking on air that is no longer breathable. Imagine seeing that not even plant life has sprouted on the planet that used to be so full of life. 

So what would be more believable–seeing and experiencing first-hand the dead earth, or a flimsy theory built on the rules of the killing game and the strange actions of the robot that put them in it?

All it takes for that theory to fall apart is yes, indeed, the killing game was built for an audience. An audience of _one._ One single, sadistic person who’s running the show and enjoying humanity’s last survivors murdering each other under their whim.

This is the kind of situation Kokichi finds himself in. The truth is, Kokichi would be a right _fool_ to believe that this image of a dead world is fake when he faced something that seemed _so real._

I think the first mistake people make is assume that Kokichi is “smarter” than this. The problem is, there’s little evidence to show for it, and Kokichi’s behavioral change is telling that _he really isn’t as above the Mastermind as we assumed._ He’s hyper intelligent, of course, but without evidence to prove the contrary, it’s hard to deny something you experienced first hand yourself.

It’s also important to remember that Kokichi did, in fact, _experience this first hand._ He didn’t see it through a flashback light like Gonta does later, nor did anyone tell him this was the “truth” of the outside world. If there’s anything he thinks he can trust–or so he thinks–it’s his own experiences and senses.

After Kokichi sees the dead world, he becomes more openly twisted and threatens to get downright violent.

While Kokichi’s poker face is on point, this is the first instance of Kokichi showing “genuine” malice and violent threats of becoming the blackened when before he was either outright against the killing game or outright against the murderers. Before chapter 4, Kokichi saw himself opposing the blackened students, not _with_ them.

Examples: upon Maki asking whether or not the killing game has started up again after Ryoma’s death:

While Korekiyo calls Kokichi a liar and Kokichi reels himself back in, I do believe this is a genuine reaction. It’s hard to tell, but at least one thing is certain: whether or not the reaction is genuine, he is _denying interest in the killing game altogether._

Angie’s death reaction:

Even when Kokichi is putting up a front and implying he’s treating the killing game _like_ a game, he’s still _denying the idea of killing._ Instead he is taking on the idea of the “game” being “find the culprit.” He’s acknowledged that the killing game has started and _it’s not going to stop,_ so he’s expecting deaths a lot more than before the second case. Adapt, overcome. Until the killing game stops on its own, there’s no point in trying to stop it, so find the culprit and move on.

Even here, he’s acknowledging that another death would be _bad._ Even when Kokichi’s able to put up a front in the face of Tenko’s death (after a long bout of hesitation and silence from him, mind you) the “game” is to find the culprit, not _become_ one. It’s also _very_ important to note that Kokichi is actively trying to help with the investigation in chapter 3, so much so that he ends up getting injured and he _still_ provides Shuichi with useful information despite literally bleeding from his head.

Then after he supposedly sees what the card key has in store for him, Kokichi does a complete 180.

Where before Kokichi never instigated anything of this nature (and one could even argue that he did everything he could in the previous chapters to prevent another murder) he’s actively doing the opposite. Why now? Why would Kokichi do a complete 180 like this?

As one can assume, the simplest answer is the card key. We know later that Kokichi has _definitely_ seen the motive so it’s easy to guess that Kokichi already saw the “secret of the outside world” when we see his shift.

And if the behavior shift wasn’t enough to prove it, Kaito, the man of instincts has some very telling commentary that something is _definitely_ not right with Kokichi.

Kaito has 100% noticed that Kokichi isn’t acting normal, that something about his is off and above and beyond his normal levels of “weird.” Unfortunately the cast just leaves it at that, and no one even notices something else…

Kokichi is no longer _speaking._ He goes completely silent after being struck, almost like he’s dissociating. The silence speaks more truth than anything Kokichi could have said–and it says that something is _definitely wrong with him._

So we know that Kokichi is mentally unstable and we know the cause. Or, well, _one_ of the causes. That’s right, there’s more than likely yet _another_ cause weighing on his mind in that moment, or at least, something that adds the cherry on top to the cake of disaster. Something else that starts up in this very same chapter.

Miu’s crisis to escape _no matter the cost._

__

Before Kokichi even has the chance to do some investigating with the card key, Miu’s already getting desperate and upset. This is after the first flashback light, given to them just after the card key. Miu’s motives and reasoning is a whole other theory within itself, but she’s desperate to _get out at any cost._ This is the moment she is convinced to plot a murder. She may or may not have been toying with the idea before hand, but this is the moment where that resolve is solidified.

Miu, as hard as it is to believe, is actually very smart and has a decent head on her shoulders despite her being… an _experience._ She probably already knows that her best bet would be to kill Kokichi for a few reasons.

One: He’s one of two major threats in the class trials

Two: He may or may not have information on her that could lead to her execution once she is a blackened

Three: The only other major threat being Shuichi, and out of the two, Kokichi has been the one working with her for some period of time before hand, making it easier to ask for favors of him without drawing too much suspicion.

Miu targeting Kokichi was the smartest move she could have done for her murder plot, however it was a huge gamble. It relied on Kokichi trusting her enough to not even consider her targeting him, which is precisely what happened. He figured out her plan because he _doesn’t_ trust her to that point. 

So not only is Kokichi in the middle of a killing game with what he assumes to be humanity’s last survivors, but someone he had been working with was plotting to kill him. A recipe for mental _sabotage._

Now that we’re done thoroughly analyzing the situation and getting into the mindset of Kokichi’s character throughout this situation, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. His plot.

From what we know, Kokichi has something sinister cooking up in the back of his head, but what if I told you that he didn’t just have _one_ plot in mind, but potentially three and at _least_ two plots that revolved around the flashback light in the virtual world? After all, Kokichi is a smart little booger, so it’d make sense that he have some back up plans, or plans for events that are less likely but still plausible.

Let’s talk about these two plots, and discuss what sort of evidence the game gives us for them.

The first plot is the plot that ends up being executed later on in the chapter and thus the rest of the killing game; Kokichi uses the flashback light to make Gonta into a murderer and manipulate the class into thinking that he was evil and the Mastermind. All in attempts to force-stop the killing game right in its tracks. He’s the villain of this story and he’s acknowledged that the best way to get everyone onto the same page is to force himself into that role without question.

However, this plot, while it may or may not have been in his head a little while longer, was Plan B. This plan was _not_ meant to be the main event, and there’s some rather convincing evidence that points to the second plot actually being his main objective.

Believe or not… Kokichi was _actually trying to get everyone killed._

Let’s look at the evidence.

First and foremost, Kokichi does a couple of tests and fact checking to make sure what he assumed of Miu is correct–that she was, indeed, planning to murder him. He might have had suspicions, but he needed to confirm it first. First, he confirms that they can feel _pain_ in the virtual world. 

Then, he drops a line about logging out alone, suspecting that maybe Miu has a plan to log out and kill his real body while he was still in the virtual world.

This implies that Kokichi himself isn’t _entirely_ sure of what Miu is plotting. Just that she’s plotting something to do with his death in this virtual world.

Kokichi then turns his immediate suspicion onto the maps.

After confirming Miu made the maps, he comes to the conclusion that the maps are misleading and a part of her trap.

Then he manipulates and singles out Gonta. The beginning of his counter plot to Miu’s murder–and his plot to mass-mercy kill everyone.

And once Gonta and Kokichi are out that door, the plot is set into motion. Kokichi shows Gonta the flashback light containing the secret of the outside world, and convinces him that he has a plot to mercy-kill the rest of the class–including himself–so the others don’t have to suffer like they were suffering.

Gonta agrees to the plan, and kills Miu. However, that same line of events stays in line with Kokichi’s other plan, the one we see actually unfold, where he manipulates Gonta to kill Miu to make himself look more like the villain of this story. Considering how the chapter goes, it’s not likely that his “mass-mercy-kill” plan is actually legitimate, right?

There’s evidence to the contrary.

First, the investigation.

First, Kokichi immediately starts manipulating the situation–not to put suspicion on Kaito (he in fact gives Shuichi information to take the suspicion off of Kaito) but to use that suspicious happenstance to isolate Shuichi. As Kokichi has stated, Shuichi is the most reliable person in the class trial. So naturally, if Kokichi’s got some kind of plan, he needs to manipulate Shuichi in order for it to work.

This immediately contradicts the idea of his initial plan being to use Gonta’s murder as a method to further his role as the villain. After all, why does he want to isolate Shuichi from Kaito, knowing very well that Kaito _isn’t_ the culprit and that his aim would be for Gonta to be chosen as the blackened?

There is no reason to isolate Shuichi from Kaito if he just wanted Gonta to be the culprit for his “I’m the Mastermind” plot.

Kokichi further enforces the idea that he is manipulating Shuichi here:

Kokichi is following him around, tailing him like a lost puppy. If Kokichi’s goal is to expose Gonta as the killer and then use that as a method to make himself look all the more evil, it makes sense that he’d want to help Shuichi uncover the truth as fast as possible.

… Except that’s the issue. Kokichi’s “help” isn’t all that “helpful.” Well to be fair, he _does_ help out most of the time.

But then, Shuichi talks to Gonta, who’s struggling to comprehend the situation.

Kokichi _immediately_ lies to Shuichi’s face and says that Gonta is seemingly telling the truth when, for all Kokichi knows at this point, Gonta is 100% lying. He's even playing up on the subtle ableism the whole class has been having towards Gonta by calling him a "big dum-dum" and implying he is an idiot (but that's an analysis for another day) and there is a multitude of evidence that shows that Kokichi _thinks the exact opposite of this._

The first point to offer on this topic is that you constantly see Gonta and Kokichi together during various Free Time Events, hanging out and scheming together. While I'll elaborate more in a Gonta Analysis that I will post later, Gonta is actually not a "minion" Kokichi is manipulating--a lot of the time, he is actually very aware of his plots and very on board with them. For example:

Not only is Gonta quite upfront about it, but Gonta isn't even referring to Kokichi in this scene as "the one who wants to trade motive videos," he only refers to himself. Implying that, when you see Kokichi and Gonta scheme together, Kokichi and Gonta are _in agreement_ with things and are plotting together. Gonta is actually a genius, and I will be posting up an analysis on that on here eventually. For now, let's move back on track.

In the chapter 4 investigation scene showed above, where Kokichi is insisting Gonta couldn't be the culprit, Kokichi isn’t yet aware of Gonta’s memory loss at this point, and there’s no way for him to deduce it at this point, because the information Kokichi needed to deduce that Gonta had a memory error…

… was only given to Kokichi and Shuichi _after_ Shuichi talked to Gonta. There is no instance where the player can talk to Gonta here after the fact, meaning that this interaction with Gonta was written _with Kokichi having no way to know that Gonta’s avatar had a memory error._ In other words, Kokichi is under the impression that Gonta is lying, because he _knows_ that Gonta killed Miu, and is _lying to Shuichi’s face about it._

I would also like to point out that Kokichi _still doesn’t have enough information_ to determine Gonta had a memory error with his Avatar. Monotaro doesn’t disclose any information about the error–just that one occurred. He doesn’t even know who got the error.

This is an important thing to keep note of for later.

Anyway, let’s continue.

During the time Kokichi and Shuichi talk with Gonta before that, Kokichi “encourages” Gonta as well, putting more implications that Gonta _can’t_ be the culprit and Gonta has nothing to do with this case.

But why?

If Kokichi’s goal was to make Gonta a criminal from the get go, and convince everyone he was the Mastermind through the use of making Gonta into a murderer, why is Kokichi going out of his way to isolate and manipulate Shuichi into thinking otherwise? Some think that he was doing this to mess with everyone during the trial, but I highly disagree with that notion–but we will get to that later.

There’s also this little scene right before the class trial…

He’s… really not being subtle here, is he?

Moving on to the trial…

The biggest contradiction in the idea that Kokichi’s plot to make Gonta a murderer _just_ so he could later be pinned as the Mastermind happens throughout the entire trial.

Kokichi _purposefully_ draws suspicion onto himself at various points during the said trial

Kokichi brings up a good point–if he wants to live, _why is he making this trial so difficult?_ Why is he _purposefully_ drawing suspicion onto himself? He knows who the culprit is, and as we see, once Kokichi reveals it’s Gonta, it’s all over. So why is he _keeping_ that information from everyone?

He purposefully says information that he knows he _shouldn’t_ have known…

Leaves _himself_ off of the suspect list, making him look all the more guilty…

Kokichi being nervous here… Which, by the way, makes no sense no matter which way you look at it: If he’s genuinely nervous, then that means he has something to hide that’s _making_ him nervous. If he wants Gonta to be the murderer, then Gonta being exposed should be exactly what he wants, and thus wouldn’t make him nervous.

If he was nervous because they were trying to pin him as the culprit and he didn’t want to die, he would have revealed the special settings on his avatar at this point at the very _least_ rather than lie about how he knew there were brick handrails.

If Kokichi is _faking_ this nervousness, then he is _purposefully trying to get the class to believe he is nervous_ , very much so like a cornered criminal. If he wants Gonta to be identified as the culprit, then _why is he pretending to be cornered?_

Only Keebo even considers it’s a fake reaction.

Time and time again, Kokichi drops “hints” that he’s the one responsible, that _he’s_ the one who killed Miu. He never tries to point Shuichi towards Gonta, and Shuichi has fallen for his lies and trick. And then finally… Kokichi snaps.

The reason for Kokichi snapping is… up to interpretation, if I’m to be honest. Whether it be because Shuichi lied, raw guilt, or because Gonta (whom Kokichi still believes is lying) said he believed in Shuichi over Kokichi is up to interpretation. Either way from that point on, Kokichi does a complete 180 yet again, and reveals that Gonta is the culprit after so long.

I personally believe that Kokichi’s anger stems from his own paranoia, but I’ll get to that in just a moment.

Either way, the issue is… why _wait_ so long to reveal it? Why wait until everyone thought _he_ was the culprit before revealing it was Gonta? He was very well aware of the evidence that proves his innocence.

_He had this information at his disposal from the start._ If he was aiming to convict Gonta, why did he keep this hidden from the class? Especially…

… When Shuichi only just remembered the avatar’s settings _after_ Kokichi mentioned it.

Shuichi had his eyes completely on Kokichi, dead locked and centered, until he was reminded that Kokichi’s avatar had special settings.

And then comes the _anger._

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Kokichi does something here that he never does in any other instance, and that’s shout so loudly. He shouts, he screams, he is downright foul and cruel to Gonta. For the first time, the viewer is subjected to a very real, raw anger from Kokichi, and it’s brutal. Kokichi is a good actor, but this brutality and cruelness is far beyond the normal scope of acting. He’s frustrated, he angry, and it’s absolutely ugly and terrible.

This is why the likelihood of “Kokichi was just doing this to mess with everyone” is extremely low. He’s reacting with explosive, _genuine_ anger. If he was genuinely getting a kick out of it, then why is he reacting with anger and not malicious glee? This would be exactly what he wants, after all.

If this anger is somehow faked, _why_ would he fake being so viciously angry? To gain sympathy somehow? Why, when if his goal is to pretend to be the Mastermind, he later makes himself look heartless and evil?

I believe that Kokichi’s anger was triggered by his paranoia, as I’ve mentioned before. Kokichi was already betrayed by someone he trusted–Miu, and Kokichi can’t see that Gonta is lying. Gonta doesn’t _know_ he’s lying; he doesn’t remember killing Miu, but Kokichi doesn’t know that. As far as Kokichi is aware, Gonta is lying through his teeth. And instead of believing in Gonta, he probably starts to break and think that Gonta was just trying to _use_ him to get away with murder.

Kokichi is the only person who takes Gonta seriously enough to have Miu invent the Bugvac, after all. So he probably knew that Gonta was more intelligent than the other characters treat him. Maybe Kokichi started thinking that Gonta was acting like a fool, when he was actually hyper intelligent and malicious.

Kokichi felt betrayed. That’s why I believe he had such explosive anger.

The trial proceeds with Kokichi whiplashing between emotions, more so than we had ever seen him before during any case ever. This case has seriously affected him mentally, as this whole chapter had.

Yet something that’s interesting is how he’s trying to make Gonta fight back against the accusations. This could be a number of reasons. A part of him that didn’t want Plan A to fail after all, despite him being the one who sabotaged it? Projection? Hatred for Gonta for not convincing him that murdering is bad no matter what? Anger for his own paranoia?

Kokichi is extremely mentally and emotionally unstable, so it’s hard to pinpoint one reason. It could be a combination. That is up for interpretation as well.

The rest of the trial, Kokichi is basically a mess. He’s even a mess in the after-trial, too.

He feels responsible.

He feels _guilt._

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_He wants to die._

This is the longest instance we see Kokichi crying. Typically, his tears are quick and loud, but not these ones. He might claim that all of this was a lie later when he reverts back to Plan B, but I seriously doubt Kokichi is lying here. Especially because the reason he gives to “prove” he’s lying is to say he was only “trying to calm Gonta down.” Which doesn’t really make sense–it wasn’t like Monokuma would let Gonta hurt him during the after trial. If Kokichi didn’t care about Gonta at all, then he had no reason to console him.

The lie he tells later about trying to calm Gonta down is just that–a lie.

Especially when after Gonta is executed… Kokichi is _silent._

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And he only speaks again when he is addressed–and he falls back into Plan B. Become the villain everyone wanted him to be from the beginning, and usurp the real Mastermind and take control of the game to stop it.

Though I don’t think Kokichi’s desire for death stopped here.

Soon after his outburst, Kokichi starts provoking Maki–calling her the nickname Kaito gave her, being in general nasty towards her, bad mouthing Kaito and punching him when Kaito lunged at him first, but he immediately gives up the provocation when he notices she’s not going to attack him.

Shuichi then brings down the hammer onto Kokichi, telling him that he’d always be alone, and Kokichi can’t even finish his sentence before he just ups and leaves. It reads as hurt, even when Kokichi keeps up the facade.

There is also these lines of dialogue in the beginning of chapter 5 that I find to be quite telling:

Considering Kaito's usual behavior to distrust and discrediting Kokichi in the fourth trial, it is by far interesting that Kaito finds himself admitting that both Gonta _and_ Kokichi had snapped under the pressure. While I won't get into the details of Kaito's emotional intelligence here, it is important to note that Kaito, while hot headed and tends to let anger cloud his judgement most of the time, he has "cooled off" periods afterwards where he thinks about the issue that angered him so intensely in a more logical manner, dismissing his anger in order to obtain the truth of that situation. So, him admitting now that Kokichi _also_ buckled under pressure suggests that Kokichi was on the same boat as Gonta, lending itself to further imply that Kokichi was _also_ genuine about the Mass Mercy Kill plot.

Now, before I leave this off here, I will point something out:

This one line at the end of Chapter 5 does imply that his entire plot _was_ to become the Mastermind, and using Gonta to kill someone else was a ploy in this plot. However, with what I have presented here... This doesn't make any _sense._

If Kokichi truly was aiming to have Gonta executed as a blackened solely to be seen as the Mastermind, his plot here is extremely convoluted and, quite honestly, possibly the most inefficient plot he would have ever make. If what Kokichi said was true, all he had to do was a simple process of:

-Stealing the Telephone that let people leave the Virtual World while no one was looking, and hide it. Objects might not be breakable in the virtual world, but he would still be able to move the telephone and if not just it, the counter it was on. Difficult? Yes, but not impossible. Especially since everyone has equal strength in this world, but the set amount is never specified.  
-Tell Gonta that if he "killed" Miu, she would wake up int he real world and be able to get everyone else out alive.  
-When the deed is done, Kokichi could have immediately outed Gonta as the blackened and himself as the master manipulator.

That was all he had to do in order to make himself look like a villain--or, else, the Mastermind.

Yet his plot is far more convoluted and extremely risky on his part. Kokichi constantly puts his life into danger, and even racks up the suspicion during the chapter 4 trial. If his goal was simply to make Gonta the murderer and himself look all the more like a villain, why would he put his own life in danger multiple times? Why not tell them immediately when he had the opportunity to prove himself innocent? Why would he _cry_ after the trial is over and just before Gonta is going to be executed? If he wanted to present himself as "evil," there was no reason to. He claims that he only acted like that to "calm Gonta down," but for what reason? If he wanted to pretend he was the Mastermind, then he should have realized that as the Mastermind, Monokuma would "protect" him, and the truth is, Monokuma would probably have saved Kokichi from any murder attempts on his life in the post trial, where everyone would see and the trial for his murder case wouldn't be "all that interesting." All the crying does is gain him some sympathy before he tears it down again--which, if it is a lie, makes no sense.

So why does Kokichi _say_ that he did this? Well, by this point, I think Kokichi is suffering from a lot of regret and guilt, shame and self loathing. I think that he's lost sight of who he is as a person, and has fallen so far down into a deep, dark place that he can't find his way out. He was drowning, he couldn't save himself, and there was no one there to rescue him. While I'm sure he used the whole "I made Gonta into a killer to make myself look Evil" ploy as a Plan B to the mass mercy kill plot, I do believe that his words here are driven from a deep, unfathomable sense of self loathing and guilt. After all, the Chapter 5 murder was essentially an assisted suicide plot, and was extremely premeditated, but I'll cover that analysis another day.

So what does that leave for us to conclude? Well for once, that’s up to you.

I personally believe that this is the most likely outcome, and I know that it’s not a common one, and I can see why it would be glanced over.

The idea that Kokichi genuinely wanted to kill his classmates in the form of a mercy kill is a hard idea to swallow, no matter what your interpretation of him is. On one hand, the idea is that his intentions to kill the class are well founded, wanting to spare them from the same despair he felt before they could even find out, but the pathway to Hell was paved with good intentions. On the other hand, he still wanted his classmates dead, regardless of reason or intent. It's not easy to swallow the idea of death being a kinder fate than living.

That’s what makes Kokichi so interesting to me as a character, however. He’s not pure evil or a saint. He does things with the best intentions in mind, sure, but that doesn’t mean his actions are excusable. At the same time, to know how desperate and heartbroken Kokichi must have felt when he discovered the secret on his own, with no one he could turn to for comfort or to ground him before things got too out of control… it’s really heartbreaking to know that when he was in a crisis so _devastating_ that he had to handle this by himself, it’s no wonder why Chapter 4 turned out the way it did, and it’s no wonder why he ends up killing himself in Chapter 5. It makes you wish someone had been there for him before it was too late, and that’s the tragedy behind this case and chapter.

Chapter 4 was all about Grey Morality. About how killing someone could be somewhat of a merciful thing to do. About how good intentions can lead to terrible consequences. About how good people can be twisted and broken to commit atrocious crimes and be torn apart by despair.

Chapter 4 is muddy. It challenges the viewers to insert their own morality and decide what is the “good” option verses the “bad” one. It challenges players to wonder what good and bad really mean, and what it means to be somewhere in the middle–to be _human._

This is what I believe. I believe that Kokichi Ouma was a human boy stuck in a terrible situation that caused such atrocious events. But that’s my personal belief, and I’ve explained thoroughly why I believe it.

Whether or not you believe it too is up to you. I only ask that if you don’t you simply scroll on and ignore this analysis. This subject of morality and grey morality is one that hits a bit close to home, and I’d rather not debate about whether I’m correct or close to the canon or not. You’re free to believe whatever you want, just know that I have that same right as well.

Anyway, I hope you guys don’t mind the excessively long and improvised analysis/theory. And with that, I bid you goodbye, until next time.


	5. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: How Being the Scapegoat birthed the Villain Persona

In this "chapter" of my analyses on Kokichi, I want to talk about the fact that Kokichi is a compulsive liar and the psychology behind compulsive lying, the neglect he faces during the killing game, and then the creation of his villain persona.

So without further adieu, let’s get straight into the analysis/theory!

The first thing I’d like to discuss is: is Kokichi truly a _compulsive_ liar or a _pathological_ liar?

On a first glance, you might thing that compulsive lying and pathological lying are one and the same, however there are some key differences that are important.

_Pathological Liars_ have a goal in mind. They want to get their way and will do anything it takes to get there. They have complete control over their lies, and in control over themselves as well. Pathological lying is akin to lying about stealing a cookie when you were younger. Your goal was to get away with stealing, and it wasn't something that felt like the lie was beyond your control.

_Compulsive Liars,_ on the flip side, have little to almost no control over their lying. It is in fact been documented as a disorder known as _Compulsive Lying Disorder_ , which, while not an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), is recognized by most psychologists as one. Over time, the individual will become so adept at lying that it will be very difficult for others to determine if they are, in fact, telling the truth. They lie no matter what, and they have little to no control over it. The thing with people who have compulsive lying disorder is that they lie because they find telling the truth very uncomfortable, and is typically a result of self esteem issues.

So, which is it? Pathological, or Compulsive? While that is relatively debatable, I believe that c _ompulsive lying_ fits Kokichi more so than _pathological,_ though that doesn’t mean he _doesn’t_ pathologically lie in some instances.

Case in point:

Kokichi had no reason to lie here. Not unless he wanted to be seen as dependable, but regardless, he _did_ lie seemingly on a whim, almost compulsively. He could have seriously hurt himself or someone else had he slipped or lost his grip, so why lie to begin with? I do believe that this is one of the instances in which Kokichi compulsively lies.

Another instance, in the same chapter:

This is another instance of Kokichi lying for seemingly no reason. Perhaps because he felt vulnerable or scared, but him insisting that his head wound is a lie lends itself to the possibility of being a compulsive liar. As we'll see later, Kokichi is _not_ faking his injury. This is a very real injury, and we can assume that Kokichi either tripped from dizziness or passed out from the head wound.

These are just two instances, both of which were in the same chapter. I may edit this theory later to add on more instances if I come across them, but these two are just two of many in which Kokichi's reason for lying is unclear or counter productive for his own needs.

Kokichi had also implied that he was the way he was because he grew up in an environment that forced his hand into it, which also plays into compulsive lying as it typically starts in childhood. While his background is unknown, it is important to note that Kokichi considered D.I.C.E. to be the most important people in his life, like friends and family, implying that they were _found_ family and he was an orphan or a runaway, even. There’s a lot of speculation to come with that, but for the time being, we can just summarize Kokichi’s childhood to be terrible conditions that would make lying a survival tactic, whether that be mental, emotional, or physical survival.

Now that we’ve talked about which kind of liar Kokichi is, let’s talk about how his disorder caused his doom–and not just because his classmates couldn’t trust him. You see, compulsive lying, as a disorder, is a… well, _disorder,_ and like most disorders, impacts the sufferer more than those around them.

I think, sadly, this is the key element to Kokichi’s slow but steady progression into becoming the “villain” of the group.

In chapter 1, we see Kokichi being a little booger, but he’s actually rather harmless with just playful jokes, teasing, and lies. There is no genuine malice coming from him, but here’s the catch–it all starts here.

When Kokichi calls Kaede out in the Death Road of Despair, he is immediately beaten down verbally by his fellow classmates, notably Tenko calling him selfish despite his reasons for calling Kaede out to be for not just himself, but for _the whole group._ I’ve said it before, but there is a reason why Kokichi is the Ultimate Supreme Leader, and this is a shining example of a true leader (Kokichi) verses a stereotype media leader (Kaede.) Kokichi is being the _opposite_ of selfish, as he takes notice that several members of the class are hurting and Kaede isn’t letting them stop. He knows when to quit, for his own sake and for the team, and Kaede doesn’t. She’s too focused on the end goal. And yet, when he stands up for everyone...

_Immediately,_ Kokichi is accused of wanting to start the killing game, and not only that…

Rantaro’s accusation _sticks._ All Kokichi did was say they should look for another way out, he said absolutely _nothing_ about the killing game, and he’s already being outcasted as the villain. He is threatened and ganged up on, rather than being listened to.

This… is _dangerous._ For everyone _and_ Kokichi, in several different ways. However for Kokichi, this is amplified with how dangerous it can be because of how compulsive liars work. Because a lot of compulsive lying is anxiety based, compulsive liars typically lie and tell others what they want to hear. This is especially so if being honest is bringing them more misfortune or not being believed. In this case, it's the latter.

The class _wanted_ Kokichi to be the villain. From the beginning, they accused him of horrible things for… seemingly no reason, and it only gets worse from here on out. Kokichi does try to fight it, but all that happens is…

The class pushes him into feeling the need to lie about his true intentions…

He gets _literally choked out_ for a whole conversation with no one to come to his immediate aid–not even _Gonta,_ despite outing an assassin for his and everyone else's benefit...

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And _despite_ having very clear signs of being _actually injured,_ like spacing out…

Uncharacteristic, _genuine_ stuttering…

And most of all–

Shuichi _acknowledging that Kokichi’s wound and blood loss is genuine…_

With all of this, you can see that Kokichi is neglected and abused all throughout the first 3 chapters, and there is no reason for his classmates to do such a thing. Yes, Kokichi’s methods of going about the class is confusing and hard to understand, but what is even _harder_ to understand is why his classmates thinks nothing of it when he gets nearly choked to death by an assassin or when he has a very serious head-wound. Especially when the latter cannot be claimed as “Oh well Shuichi probably thought it was a prank!” When Shuichi _himself_ acknowledges that Kokichi is _swaying from blood loss._

The matter of the fact is, Kokichi’s only crime at this point was his strange way of cooperating or lack there of. There as no malice in him up to this point–in fact, the whole situation where he hit his head is proof of him _trying to cooperate with the cast_ despite his dire need for medical attention. Instead of demanding medical attention, after hitting his head so hard he started bleeding and passed out in the hallway, he started talking about his findings to Shuichi. Believe it or not, but Kokichi does have everyone else in mind when he is making his plots, and… that’s the problem.

The class has already painted him as the outsider. The trouble maker who doesn’t want to cooperate and/or wants to cause everyone misery and suffering. They’ve already made him a villain in their heads, and no matter what he does, he can’t change their minds.

So…

He became something he _wasn’t._ For _them._

A lot of people say that Kokichi has a sort of villain complex that, to be quite frank, I don’t think exactly hits the mark. In non-stressful situations, such as Salmon mode and the TDP, Kokichi never has this “villain” persona. He’s not trying to be the most evil, most hated classmate among the others. He’s still a compulsive liar and mischievous, of course, but this _villain_ persona is unique to the killing game. Even most (if not all) of Kokichi's "creepy sprites" are unique to the Killing Game, implying that those sprites are rooted in a slow decent into madness and desperation.

This persona is unique to the killing game because during the killing game, Kokichi becomes the classmate everyone turns to when something goes wrong and immediately puts the blame on him. He’s the most suspicious person, the scapegoat, the outsider.

The blatant mistreatment of Kokichi is what creates this Villain persona. Kokichi has realized by now that he is _very well hated_ and _no one would care if he died_ in this killing game, so he backpedals into a persona that they want him to be. This is, sadly, an accumulation of the neglect and his own disorder/paranoia/anxiety warping his perceptions.

As Kokichi has said before, the role of the villain is perfect for him–but why does he say that? Well, this is why. As a compulsive liar, he couldn’t get anyone on his side, so he felt the need to fall into their narrative for him–the role of the villain–in order to get any of them to listen to what he says, though in a really round-about fashion. He believed that’s what they wanted out of him, and what they wanted was what they got.

That is all for this segment of my series of analyses on Kokichi Ouma. I hope that you enjoyed my thoughts, even if you don't agree with them.


	6. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: What Makes an Ultimate (Supreme) Leader, and Why His Talent is Not a Lie

In this analysis, we will be discussing Kokichi's given talent, Ultimate "Supreme" Leader, and what exactly he does in order to earn such a title.

A big misconception that shrouds Kokichi is that his talent as a “Supreme Leader” is a lie, due to how little people he leads in his organization (which may or may not be true, as I’ve discussed in an another post that I will elaborate on later) and doesn’t have the leadership qualities that other classmates like Kaede and Kaito have. So, if he doesn’t have these qualities, then he can’t actually be an “Ultimate Leader” of any kind. In fact, it has been said that he is more like an Ultimate Liar, which I argue is a big misrepresentation of his skills altogether.

Except, Kokichi’s leadership skills are so profound and subtle, that they go completely under the radar–the class was being lead by him without them ever even knowing it.

Without further adieu, let’s talk about the subtle nature of Kokichi’s talent, and what defines him as an “Ultimate Leader” above everyone else, even Kaito and Kaede.

So there’s a lot to unpack here, and it might be easiest to start from the beginning–from when Kokichi’s talent first shows up, and the progression his talent takes to “lead” his classmates without them realizing that he’s leading them to begin with.

The first, and most noticeable, Leadership quality that Kokichi takes is his willingness to say what needs to be said. For example: when Kokichi stands up to Kaede in the Death Road of Despair tunnels.

Though before we talk about that, let’s make a mental note here first: In the beginning of their attempts to escape through the Death Road of Despair Tunnels, Kokichi is supporting Kaede with full force.

After the first failed attempt, Kaede inspires the group to try again, and this is Kokichi’s reaction:

And even after the second attempt at failure…

It’s not Kaede who rallies everyone together this time–but _Kokichi,_ who isn’t ready to give up yet. They’ve only tried a total of two times by that point, so he’s still inspired to progress forward. He doesn’t even wait for Kaede to come to completely and get her head together before he takes charge, not letting Miu’s pessimism bring anyone down. This is something people often forget or miss, especially when discussing how Kokichi had been needlessly cruel to Kaede–but the thing was, that Kokichi _was on board_ with going through the escape tunnels in the first few attempts. He even goes so far as to take the lead in this instance to do so, when Kaede isn't quick enough to react. At first, Kokichi was on her side.

And then they try, and try, and try again…

… With no success. Remember, the students started their attempts at the Death Road of Despair in broad daylight, and by the time they end, it was nighttime. This means at the very _least,_ they’ve been attempting the tunnels for several hours, definitely not eating during this time period. Despite this, despite everyone being tired, in pain, and weak, Kaede refuses to back down from the challenge.

(And yes, I am aware Angie says she is thankful no one was seriously injured, but considering Kaede has been knocked unconscious multiple times, her judgement as to what a “serious injury” actually looks like is very unreliable. I thought I’d just throw this in here for good measure.)

Anyway… Kokichi, unlike Kaede, sees the pain everyone is in…

Notice here how Tsumugi _outwardly expresses_ frustration/pain/a desire to give up. She's at least implying she is tired or injured, and yet...

Kaede doesn't even _stop to consider it_ until Kokichi stands up for Tsumugi. She isn't intentionally harming anyone by any means, but she is _not listening_ to the cries of those she is pushing forward. They want to stop, and she won't let them.

While Kaede doesn’t intend to, she _is_ forcing everyone to endure very painful traps, ignoring the injuries the others might have obtained, and her message has gone from “inspiring” to “unreasonable” and “impossible.” 

This instance is the first time Kokichi openly stands up for the others, and says something that no one else wants to say. They’re all afraid to hurt Kaede, to fail her expectations and morale, but they are _tired._ They are struggling, they are injured, they are weak, and they will only get more and more exhausted and hurt if they continue.

So, Kokichi stands up to the inspiring, passionate Kaede, and tells her exactly what she is doing to them.

Since Kaede isn't listening to the pleas of those around her, Kokichi has to step in and knock her out of her tunnel vision. Again, Kaede was _unintentionally_ doing this, but that didn't mean that she _wasn't._ It is important to note here that Kokichi is telling Kaede what she is doing, but not necessarily blaming her either. He himself is angry, hurt, and frustrated, but even if the combined sprites and his tone reads as so, he doesn't appear to be _blaming_ her for her ignorance either.

Also, notice how Kokichi isn’t saying that _he’s_ the one in pain, or _he’s_ the one too weak to go on–he’s speaking up for the people, standing up to someone when no one else would, and this is a shining example of his true character–that he has the well being of everyone else on his mind at all times.

_He_ could probably go on. Maybe he can’t. But he’s not speaking for himself, he’s speaking for _those around him_ who he sees are in pain, who are suffering, and gives them a voice that they are unwilling to admit they needed. They were too afraid to be “the bad guy,” So Kokichi took it upon himself to do it for them.

And, let’s not forget, how difficult it is to actually _stand up to someone._ Even more so stand up to someone who doesn’t actually mean any harm. It’s natural human nature to remain quiet, to push forward and go with the flow. It’s far more difficult to rise above the crowd, especially when everyone else around you is doing the same–sitting there, and not doing anything. To stand up against the crowd– _for_ the crowd–is a very admirable and brave act. Because when you rise above, there will be consequences–

–And that is, you might become the one to blame.

Because no one else wanted to stray from the path to do something uncomfortable, Kokichi’s willingness to do something so harsh leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth–like he has malicious intentions, like he _wants_ the killing game to start. Rantaro’s own paranoia and Tenko blindly accepting reinforcing it, sets this unfortunate downward spiral into motion, and from here on out, Kokichi can’t take back the reigns. He does try here, too–giving an offering of peace in the form of bubblegum, but is threatened instead. 

Everyone has this thought in their heads now, always tainting their perception of Kokichi and thinking the worst of him in every situation where he opposes them.

A normal person would have probably crumbled in a situation where they were just trying to do the right thing, and ended up with a threat like _having their head smashed into the ground._ It’s not a good feeling, to try to do right by others and be villainized for it. Most people would probably think twice about speaking up just from Tenko’s threat alone, and fall back into the crowd.

But Kokichi doesn’t.

While the class is arguing and the peace is falling apart, the Nighttime announcement plays, alerting everyone that it’s about time they get some rest. When there’s resistance to the idea–

He tells them, point blank, to _suck it up_ and makes a plan for the next day. Note that he’s still including himself in the group here as well, saying “we have to suck it up” instead of “You need to suck it up.” He doesn’t want this either, but they literally have no other options but to rest. Despite Kokichi getting the short end of the stick just _moments_ before, he doesn’t hesitate at all to stand against the class in order to do what he thinks is right, for _all_ of them, and not just himself. 

He knows they need rest, and he knows that resisting is pointless. So once again, he does what no one else wants to do, and tells those protesting to the idea that they don’t really have any other choice. The class is unwilling to be as blunt nor do they want to hurt each other’s feelings or invalidate them, but in doing so, they are encouraging problematic behavior that will do more harm than good in the long run.

Kokichi also immediately makes a plan for the group to meet up at the Dining Hall every morning, a tradition the class follows for the rest of the game.

This is one of the biggest piece of evidence that points to Kokichi’s talent actually being genuine, but it doesn’t account for everything. He’ll take charge and power through in order to do what he thinks is best for everyone, but it’s actually not the more subtle ways Kokichi leads the group.

Kokichi leads them all with subtle manipulation.

The very next morning, when they all meet up in the Dining Hall, is an example of how Kokichi maneuvers the class into facing and accepting their issues and reality.

First and foremost, Kokichi notices/is aware of the fact that tension from the night prior have yet to be resolved, and thus still remains an issue that divides the class, and thus needs a resolution as quickly as possible.

Here, Kokichi is forcing the class to acknowledge two things–Kaede’s distress, and their own resentment towards her for their pain from the tunnels.

Again, he is met with resistance–

Instead of letting them avoid the problem, he forces them to confront it. There are hurt feelings among them, and frustrations that they need to talk about. Kokichi can tell that the people who were upset at Kaede and blaming her were still doing so, and it needs to be addressed.

A note to point out:

During this conversation, Tenko accuses Kokichi of blaming Kaede first–but that’s actually not what happened at all. Go back and read over what Kokichi says–and you’ll find that he never says it’s _her_ fault. What he _did_ tell her, however, was the reality of the situation, that she was hurting the others by pushing them too hard. He doesn’t blame her for her ignorance to the other’s suffering, but he brings her down to earth by making her realize what she was doing.

Yes, he was harsh, probably suffering from his own pain and exhaustion, but there’s a distinct difference between _calling someone out for problematic behavior_ and _blaming them for their ignorance._

Aside from Tsumugi's protesting that Kaede ignored, and everyone else following suit after Kokichi called her out on it, it was _Maki_ who openly expressed that she actually blamed Kaede with full force.

Note that this is right after Kaede was profusely apologizing as well. Considering that there was at least _one_ person that openly expressed resentment towards Kaede, Kokichi knew that there had to be _several others_ who were remaining silent, putting on a false bravado and pretending like it didn’t bother them.

It’s not just Kokichi who noticed it, either–

Kaito had _also_ noticed that there were people blaming Kaede, and it needed to be addressed and resolved.

And when it’s resolved…

He expresses relief–like that was what he wanted to begin with. Kaede needed to acknowledge that she was being inconsiderate to those who felt that way and apologized for it. Keebo then accuses Kokichi of originally blaming Kaede first, and Kokichi kind of rolls with it and they move on.

Another thing to point out, is that while the class acknowledged and addressed the tension between Kaede and the rest of them, _Kokichi_ never gets any sort of closure for himself. He was accused of wanting to start the killing game, and also threatened with a violent action that may as well have been a threat of killing him. Yet he doesn't bring this up, and instead, lets these instances of aggression towards him slip under the radar. As if he assumes his feelings and well being come second to those around him.

More over, Kokichi _does_ say this:

And from his actions in just a single day that we’ve seen him… this isn’t a lie. It matches up perfectly with his actions–he really does have everyone’s best interest at heart. He's even willing to let the transgressions against him slide in favor of the others.

However, there’s more to Kokichi's supposed "leader" talent, and the scene’s not even over yet.

Soon after this resolution, Monokuma provides the class with the first motive–the First Blood Perk, and creates a Prisoner’s Dilemma to counter Kaede’s attempts to make everyone cooperate. This causes a sort of mass panic, and everyone is starting to freak out.

Within _seconds_ of the First Blood Perk being implemented into the Killing Game, Miu is already displaying signs of fear, implying that she is already mentally preparing herself to fight for her life. Especially if that means she has to kill someone first, before someone can think to kill her. Though, before the panic and fear of dying could spread:

Monotaro accidentally steps on Monokuma, and then Monokuma explodes. Following this, the class is confused, having suffered from intense emotional whiplash.

Going from absolute panic to confusion is overwhelming, and it’s Kokichi who steps up to do damage control.

While Kokichi says the first part with a smile on his face, it very well is probably a mask. He acknowledges that “everything’s a mess now” and immediately dismisses what just happened with the First Blood Perk.

With how quick Kokichi is to basically say “Nope, there’s no more killing game, we’re done here!” it’s telling that he’s most likely internally panicking like crazy and latching on to the first thing he can think of to dispel the confusion and panic in one swoop. Miu was already implying that she was on the verge of considering murder just from the _idea_ of the First Blood Perk, so Kokichi’s apparent internal panic is very justified.

Kokichi also immediately dismisses valid concerns brought up;

Which is… _very_ strange, considering what we know about Kokichi in the later portion of the game. We _know_ Kokichi is hyper intelligent, and always thinking of the worst-case scenario and even paranoid, so him just dismissing Rantaro’s concern as if he truly believes in it or is in denial is very strange–until you consider what his actions and words are _doing to the other classmates._

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_They’re not freaking out anymore._

Kokichi is purposefully shutting down any and all valid concerns in favor of reducing mass panic, because mass panic could very well start up the Killing Game without any ability for him to stop it. It might have started right then and there. So Kokichi, thinking on his feet, took advantage over the fact Monokuma exploded to distract everyone from the mass panic caused by the First Blood Perk

And, it’s working.

Unfortunately, Kaede doesn’t quiet get the memo–

And Kokichi’s immediate rebuttal is a _distraction_ from the problem of the First Blood Perk, reminding Kaede and everyone else of the suffering from the tunnels. Which is _very_ counter productive to what he did before, but he most likely feels cornered and pressured–panicking himself, afraid of the mass panic bubbling up again, and Kaede is unintentionally trying to drag everyone back into the mass panic by insisting that they couldn’t just ignore valid concerns.

If Kaede is going to be the opposing force and lead everyone back to mass panic, then Kokichi has no other choice, he has to socially isolate her before she can undo his damage control. If no one listens to her, then she can’t accidentally start up the mass panic again.

This is an example of a rather ugly side to leadership–sometimes, the right thing to do is ugly. It’s not always pretty, it’s not always nice, it’s not always kind, it’s not always easy. People will get hurt. Choices will be difficult. However, Kokichi doesn’t even hesitate for a _second_ to put Kaede back on the hot seat, because he’s already accepted this fact. Whether or not it was the right choice is debatable, but we already know Kokichi is most likely internally panicking himself. He can put on a front, but his actions suggest otherwise, and I’m sure even _Kokichi_ can crack under such intense pressure.

Was it the best choice? It’s hard to say, but it does dispel the mass panic in the heat of the moment. 

Either way, the next morning proves that Kokichi’s damage control to avoid mass panic was working, because–

Everyone’s calm and happy. The First Blood Perk is the furthest from their minds it can be. Kokichi keeps drilling “the killing game is canceled” into everyone’s heads, too, to keep it that way. The fact he _keeps say it_ makes me believe that he is saying it less out of denial and more for the sake of everyone else. The repetition sounds almost… desperate. Like he wants everyone to believe it no matter what, and keep believing it. Probably while he does his own investigation to get everyone out of there before Monokuma can return and bring the mass panic back, except of course, Kokichi and everyone else aren’t so lucky.

Kokichi’s immediate panic here is telling too. If he _wasn’t_ in total denial, Kokichi’s shock and horror is from the fact that Monokuma came back _way_ before he could figure something out, and the mass panic is going to return to the class whether he likes it or not. That false sense of security he created was gone in an instant.

Monokuma specifically showing up right after Kokichi says he’s dead, opening with the line “And that’s my cue!”, it could suggest that this is Monokuma’s way of thwarting _Kokichi’s_ efforts to keep the peace, similarly to how the prisoner’s dilemma was used to break Kaede’s peace. The time limit put into effect was probably a result of Kokichi’s attempts as well, actually, but I digress.

Now that we’re finally done talking about Kokichi’s attempts to keep the peace, there’s another sign of leadership Kokichi displays right after the time limit is in effect.

Kokichi… quite literally offers himself up to die first. Miu even catches on to his maybe-not-so-subtle implication. Before this, he was crying about how he “doesn’t want to die,” but dismissed it as a lie. Maybe it’s true that he doesn’t want to die, but with the time limit in effect–well. I’m sure a good leader would rather go down with the ship alone rather than drag their crew down with them.

That is yet another ugly side to leadership–self sacrifice. Kokichi displays a lot of it later on in more obvious detail, but I wanted to show how early on in the game Kokichi was displaying these characteristics to put the full game in perspective. Yet again, in the span of just a handful of days, we see Kokichi displaying some kind of leadership quality that goes under the radar.

Being a good leader means putting those you lead first, and yourself second. Or at least, that’s what the general consensus is, and Kokichi follows that pretty closely. Becoming the villain to stop the killing game, to force himself to give Shuichi and Maki information when he had a serious head injury, outing Maki in front of everyone–Kokichi often paints a target on his back, and it’s always to help those around him… even at the cost of his own life, which is his biggest self-sacrifice for the others in the end.

Finally, I’ll like to wrap things up with a time skip to after Kaede’s trial, and Kokichi’s behavior the next morning. 

… Which at a first glance, reads as insanely insensitive. And you’re right–it _is_ insensitive. However, there is a problem that yet again, no one is addressing.

The class has resorted into escapism.

Everyone knows it, but none of them want to acknowledge it. They’d rather pretend everything was okay, fall into a false sense of security, and escape their reality. However, Kokichi already saw the outcome of what happens to this group when that fragile escapism breaks–he was the one who put them into a false sense of security before, after all. It resorts into murder. 

They can’t afford to fall into this false sense of security again, because that false sense of security is what Monokuma _wants._ He _wants_ the class to pretend everything is fine, so he can come and destroy it later and provoke another murder. And when the class resists to leave their escapism…

Kokichi mutters to himself about how they’re falling right into Monokuma’s trap.

And Kokichi is hyper aware of it. So even when everyone is resistant to face reality, Kokichi is there to drag them back kicking and screaming, because they can’t _afford_ to fall into escapism.

However, this paints a very negative picture in their eyes, since Kokichi is the odd one out. _He’s_ the one not playing along, _he’s_ the one not cooperating, _he’s_ the troublemaker for being so cruel. He gets dismissed and ignored, yet despite that, Kokichi in the later part of the game still does his best for everyone. Even when his mind is twisted in chapter 4, his motives are still related to his desire to be the leader. To save them, to do the right thing, even if it was out of a twisted sense of madness. His plot with Gonta, the mercy kill plot, was genuine even when he insists it wasn’t–and yet it was, and the twisted kindness of wanting to put people out of their misery before they fell into a mind-breaking despair that you felt is still an act of mercy, of wanting to make sure those around him aren’t going to suffer like he had.

From the very beginning, Kokichi displays remarkable actions that lend themselves to his talent, to being a good leader. He stands up for those in pain when no one else will, manipulates the class to discuss uncomfortable topics that really can’t be avoided, acts quickly on his feet and improvises some nonsensical idea that the Killing Game is over to prevent mass panic and keep the peace, offering himself up as sacrifice, and finally, just doing what he thinks is necessary to prevent more murders, even at the cost of his own sanity and even if the others start hating him for it.

And that’s kind of what a true leader is all about. It’s not glamorous, its not rewarding, you’re not always treated like a hero–sometimes, you can’t even _be_ the hero. It’s hard, it’s ugly, and it hurts you, it hurts those you care about, but sometimes there’s no better choice. You have to put yourself second, no matter what that might mean. Sometimes, you need to make the biggest sacrifice of all–not to be remembered as a tragic hero, not to be remembered as a leader, but simply to do what was best for everyone, and dying while knowing that your sacrifice won’t even be somewhat appreciate–that takes a serious amount of willpower. Dying, sacrificing your life for people you think hate you or you know won’t truly understand how deep your loyalty to them ran, not understanding how much you had done for them, and yet, you still are more than willing to do it because it will potentially stop more death and heartbreak for those people, _that’s_ what makes Kokichi an Ultimate Leader. 

He doesn’t demand recognition, validation, comfort, praise, _nothing_ for his leadership. He just does what he thinks is the best thing to do for everyone around him.

There is also a little bit of Meta that suggests that Kokichi's talent really is "Ultimate (Supreme) Leader" (Technically, it gives way to suggest that the "supreme" part of Kokichi's title is a mere exaggeration he adds on himself, and his true title is "Ultimate Leader") if you look in the "extras" section of the game:

You can find this in the Event gallery, and this is the scene where Kokichi is muttering to himself after Gonta's execution. If you have read my previous chapters, you'll note that Kokichi's original plan (at least from my perspective) was to Mass Mercy Kill the rest of the class, including his own suicide. You'll also know that his "Plan B" was to overtake the mastermind, and play the role as the "villain" in a maddening attempt to stop the Killing Game for good.

What's really telling about this, is that in the English translation of this title at any rate, this scene-where Kokichi ultimately decides to sacrifice everything that he is, his mind, his body, his life, everything-is titled "An Ultimate Leader."

And that is why, I believe, his Ultimate title cannot be a lie.

Anyway, thank you for reading. I hope that, even if you might not agree with me, that this analysis was though provoking and entertaining at the very least. 


	7. Kokichi Ouma Character Analysis: The Chapter 5 Murder/Suicide Plot was Premeditated

Something I’ve wanted to discuss/bring attention to is the fact that I haven't seen many people, if any, acknowledge the possibility that Kokichi's plot for chapter 5 was _extremely_ premeditated. As in, Kokcih had thought of and completed this plot long before he actually kidnapped Kaito in Chapter 5. There are some tragic implications I wanted to discuss with this theory as well, as the implications of Kokichi having plotted his plot out in advance has some depressing implications on his mental state.

So without further adieu, let’s get started.

First, there are some things we should make clear before anything else. Kokichi was missing throughout most of Chapter 5. After Chapter 4, Kokichi was nowhere to be found until he shows up again in the gym with the Electrohammers and Electrobombs. Second, the narrative never revealed if Kaito or Kokichi left the hanger at any point during the time period when the Electrobomb was set off. Third, Kokichi did not have obvious narrative access to the hanger or knowledge of the hanger until Chapter 5–meaning that we can simplify that because Kokichi never implied to have known about the Exisal Hanger beforehand during the narrative, we can assume he didn’t know about it until after it was unlocked. Fourth, Kokichi’s biggest strength, is his ability to adapt to any situation within seconds, and we should keep this in mind.

With that out of the way, it paints a pretty clear picture as to when his plot for the press murder takes place–it has to be somewhere in Chapter 5, because he simply did not have obvious knowledge or access to the hanger before then. However, it couldn’t be _after_ he and Kaito get shot with the poisoned arrows, due to the fact that Monokuma–or anyone, for that matter–never witnessed them leaving. Maki was also probably slashing at the control panel for quite some time given how many marks she left on it, so if they had tried to leave, she would have probably noticed. Considering how long she was possibly there for, and how quickly the poison was tearing through Kokichi, it’s more than likely both Kokichi and Kaito didn’t leave the hanger at all.

After all...

After just a few minutes, Kokichi was already struggling to breathe. So regardless of the amount of time he had with the Electrobomb, he _clearly_ did _not_ have a lot of time with the poison.

This causes several issues with the idea that Kokichi thought of all of this on the spot. Kokichi clearly did not have the full 2 hours of the electrobomb, since he was very quickly dying himself. There are other inconsistencies with the idea of him creating this plot on the spot, which I will go over now.

Firstly: the camera he used for the trick.

Kaito (as Kokichi) talks about how the camera he has is from the warehouse, and that Kokichi brought it to the hanger “just in case.”

This detail goes _extremely_ under the radar as the game just dismisses it and doesn’t fully explain it, because once you stop to think about it, you realize that there was no time after Maki had shot Kokichi and Kaito with the crossbow arrows to _get_ the camera from the warehouse. Kaito might be able to, but he isn’t nearly as evasive and sneaky as Kokichi–and Kokichi has a serious back injury that probably makes it difficult for him to move. So that means, Kokichi had to have gotten the camera before Maki made her assassination attempt.

The question is… _why?_ Why would Kokichi think to bring a camera into the hanger? What was he planning on doing with it? He didn’t know Maki was going to make an assassination attempt on him, and he couldn’t have done it after she had done so. So what was he thinking?

In actuality, there’s implications that Kokichi was gathering more than just the camera before hand.

Just after they see the flashback light, everyone starts to make a plan to fight back against Kokichi and save Kaito–to which Maki admits that she had seen Kokichi leaving and probably re-entering the hanger the previous night.

Since we know Kokichi left the hanger at least _once,_ we can assume that he probably left and returned many times. One of which must have been to retrieve the camera.

I suspect this incident where Maki sees Kokichi is when he was obtaining the camera from the warehouse. There is also probably another item that Kokichi grabs from somewhere else–something that the fandom has talked about and thought of as some kind of silly plot hole, but in actuality, it makes perfect sense when you consider it was brought to the hanger on purpose, by Kokichi.

And that is, Kaito’s second jacket.

The first and obvious jacket we see is the one left stuck on the press–this is the jacket Kaito was wearing at the time when Maki shot him with the poisoned arrow. the blood and the hole on the sleeve confirms that.

However, when Kaito emerges from the Exisal–

He very clearly has another jacket. This one doesn’t have any obvious blood stains or signs of damage. So, how did Kaito obtain a second jacket before the trial, when:

  1. He couldn’t leave the hanger/Exisal without revealing the trick, and revealing that someone was in the Red Exisal when that was clearly meant to be kept under wraps until the trial started
  2. Kokichi couldn’t have gotten him the jacket after he was shot with the arrow to his back
  3. Kaito couldn’t _leave_ the hanger before Maki attempted her assassination plan since Kokichi was holding him captive, with the implication that the red Exisal was being used to keep him there
  4. He was stuck inside the Exisal until this point, again with no opportunity to obtain this second jacket



So how did Kaito get his second jacket?

If we consider that Kokichi brought it with him into the hanger, then that answers the question as to why he has two. In all likelihood, though, Kokichi probably got the coat for Kaito as a part of giving him fresh clothes to wear while he was holding him hostage, but I digress. Kokichi is seen leaving the hanger, and he clearly goes back to it, implying he’s retrieving something (or some _things_ ) and bringing them back to the hanger.

The earliest item Kokichi probably snuck out of the hanger to get, however, is the script he left Kaito.

With how the script is described, it has way too much detail and thought put into it for Kokichi to be able to whip it up in just a a couple of hours while he had a poison slowly killing him.

Again, to note:

And not even a minute or two later:

There was no way Kokichi would have been able to produce a script that detailed within the two hour time limit for the electrobomb, and even less likely he did so with the poison, seeing as it’s killing him pretty quickly. It’s far more likely that he had this book prepared very far in advance. Kaito even seems to think so as well–

And, if you consider Kokichi’s true reasoning for kidnapping Kaito, you can get a perspective of how far in advance Kokichi could have potentially planned this out.

It’s possible that Kokichi kidnapped Kaito because he was the best candidate to pull off the press murder.

Kaito was already a dead man walking, and Kokichi was very aware of this. Since Kaito was going to die anyway, Kokichi probably thought that he could convince Kaito to go along with it if he waited until Kaito was standing on his last legs. After all, too many people already died to this Killing Game, so Kokichi was probably extremely hesitant to choose someone else. The less deaths possible, the better.

Either way, knowing how detailed that script was, Kokichi needed several hours of time to be able to write the whole thing. While Kaito needed to ab-lib through most of the trial, it’s safe to assume that Kokichi had some sort of idea of how everything was going to go down.

So with everything on the table, let’s summarize Kokichi’s true plot, and how he adapted when Maki poisoned him and Kaito.

From the start of Chapter 5, Kokichi started plotting a plan revolving around the Hydraulic press and pulling off the switch with someone else. After evaluating who he had left to work with, he decides that Kaito–being already on the verge of death–was the best candidate to be his partner in this scheme of his. He lures everyone down into the Death Road of Despair, not only to just steer everyone away from continuing the Killing Game, but to pose as the Mastermind and kidnap Kaito to hold him hostage in the hanger. He planned to continuously check up on Kaito and how fast his illness was progressing, and also provided him with food and clean clothes during this time. When he thought Kaito was just about close enough to dying from his illness, he went ahead and grabbed a camera from the warehouse. He planned to continue to wait until he was sure Kaito would only last maybe another day at most.

However, before he could even wait for that, Maki made her assassination attempt, poisoning both himself and Kaito in the process. After essentially assuring that the Killing Game would continue, Kokichi decides to use this development to try to blackmail Kaito into working with him for his plot–though, Kaito didn’t actually need the blackmail, as he was pretty much on board with it due to their situation and the solution.

While that is all up for debate and speculation, that series of events would make the most sense and tie up some loose ends that the game did not completely tie up itself. It gives context as to how long Kokichi was planning his own death as well.

But, what is the unfortunate implications that I was talking about before?

Well, simply put... Kokichi's mental state for this entire chapter. Notice how I labeled the Chapter 5 plot as a Murder/ _Suicide?_

That is because, that is exactly what it is. An assisted suicide.

If you have read my previous theory on chapter 4 and Kokichi's true plot and mentality, then you should see where I'm going with this. After seeing the secret of the outside world, and after realizing that he was _wrong_ about the secret of the outside world, there is but only one other conclusion Kokichi can draw--and that is that Gonta and Miu died for _literally nothing._

While I will not go too far into Kokichi's mental health and overall signs of extreme depression and mental illness (I will save that for a future theory/analysis) I do believe that, upon discovering that he was also manipulated and fooled by Monokuma, the guilt of having one of his closest friends kill another for _no reason_ destroyed Kokichi's sanity, if he had any left. That is why you see such a huge, sudden shift in Chapters 4 and 5, and how drastic Kokichi becomes in Chapter 5 as a whole. The guilt was eating him alive--so he decided, he deserved to die.

But of course, this is Kokichi--someone who can't de without a purpose to it. So he invents a purpose to go through with this sick, twisted sense of self punishment:

As Kokichi's sprites indicate him slowly losing his mind over the game, we can see just how far gone he is when he reveals his true intentions to Kaito. Yet even with this purpose, it is clear that Kokichi had every intention of sacrificing himself in this way. The camera on its own is extremely telling that Kokichi was plotting to be crushed by the hydraulic press for a long, long while. Probably as soon as he discovered it himself, in fact. He plotted for several days to give himself the most purposeful, cruel demise the franchise has ever seen.

In the end, this plot was barely a murder to begin with--it was an assisted suicide. An elaborate, cruel, purposeful assisted suicide.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this installment of my analysis on Kokichi Ouma. What did you think?

Regardless, I hope you take care, and I will see you next time.


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